Communication systems are known to comprise an infrastructure, typically including a plurality of base transceiver stations (BTSs), and other equipment that provides communication services to communication units located in corresponding service coverage areas of the BTSs. One example of such a communication system is a cellular communication system. In a cellular system, a remote unit (RU) (e.g., a mobile station, portable radiotelephone, personal digital assistant, pager, laptop computer, to name a few) that desires to communicate, sends a channel request message to a BTS serving the coverage area in which the RU is located. Upon receiving the channel request message, the infrastructure of the cellular system allocates a communication channel for the communication, and the RU begins communicating with a telephone network subscriber or another RU via the serving BTS. Typically, multiple access wireless communication between the BTS and the RU occurs via a dedicated radio frequency (RF) channel (connection), also known as a traffic channel, that provides a path over which communication signals such as voice, data, and video are transmitted.
When the RU is engaged in an active packet data session and data exchange between the RU and the infrastructure ceases, the RU transitions to the idle state. In the idle state, the dedicated RF connection is released and the RU leaves the traffic channel. Currently, when the infrastructure has data to transmit to the RU, the infrastructure pages the RU because the infrastructure may not know the current location of the RU. The infrastructure must wait for a page response from the RU in order to learn the unit's location. Then, the infrastructure can assign a communication channel and begin transmitting data. The page/page response procedure is acceptable for voice traffic but is not acceptable for data applications because it takes too much time for the RU to be assigned to the communication channel. An ideal situation for data applications is for the RU to appear to the user as though it is always on channel. Thus, minimizing delay in the channel setup is critical.
Thus, there is a need for an apparatus and method for performing radio environment reporting on a reverse common signaling channel. Such an apparatus and method can be used to enable faster traffic channel assignment for an RU that is off of the traffic channel.